Day+One+December+3,+2009

Wow, what an amazing day! After almost 40 hours of travel the first group of the Delegation arrived at Beijing International Airport at 5:05 A.M. this morning. We were met by Hanban representatives and taken to the Beijing Hotel in the very center of Beijing. Below is a picture of the view from my balcony.



Since my small group was the first to arrive we had the morning to ourselves. I decided to venture out into Beijing on my own. Tianamen Square is only a few blocks from the Beijing Hotel so I made that my destination. Tianamen Square is the center of the Chinese government.

In a low non-descript building behind the monument seen above the body of Chairman Mao Tse Tung still lies in state. Chairman Mao founded the People's Republic of China in 1949 and led the Chinese communist government until his passing in 1976. Chairman Mao is held in very high regard by the Chinese. They describe him as the Chinese George Washington. It is estimated that each year about 12 million Chinese file through to pay their respects to Chairman Mao. I lined up with the about 1500 other people that came today to pay my respects. Chairman Mao's preserved body lies in a glass cascuit and is surrounded by the fresh cut flowers that are placed their by reverant Chinese every day. I was the only westerner in line and I felt it to be quite an honor.



Tianamen Square is surrounded on three sides by governmental buildings, The one shown here is the Great Hall of the People.

At the north side of the square is the entrance to the Forbidden City, home to the emperors of china for centuries.





While I was wandering around the square I was approached by two Chinese gentlemen. They simply walked up and struck up a conversation. What luck that turned out to be! It turns out that they were from Shanhai and were in Beijing for a medical conference. One gentleman was a surgeon and the other a hospital administrator. After visiting for a few minutes in the square they invited me to join them for tea in a traditional Chinese tea house. I followed them into old Beijing City where we found a small tea house down a narrow street. We sat around a small square table in a tiny private room where we were served a variety of teas through a traditional tea ceremony performed by a lovely young lady. Over the course of an hour we discussed everything from the great ethnic differences throughout China to how the burgeoning economy has changed the face of China over the last 20 years. The young lady would pour us each a tiny cup of whichever variety of tea she had just brewed and then the surgeon would describe the traditional Chinese medical uses for each tea. He explained that while he is trained and practices western medicine, there is no discounting the benefits of traditional treatments. What an incredible experience that was!



I returned to the hotel for lunch with my group and then we boarded a bus for the Temple of Heaven. This was the place where the Chinese emperors went to pray. During the reigns of teh emperors, foreigners and women were not aloud to visit the temple. If a forbidden person were to enter the temple grounds anyway, they were promptly beheaded for their trouble. The large stuctures you see here were built in 1530.